Things that make me go hmm…

Sports Snippets

Congrats to Darrell Wallace! On October 26, he became the first black driver to win a NASCAR in 50 years! Well done!! Check the article from theGrio.com: http://on.thegrio.com/1b4T3lc.

And while we’re on the topic of winners…Now I usually don’t say this for a team coming out of Boston, or for an American League baseball team. But I must extend my congrats to the Boston Red Sox. They gave their city something to look forward to in the wake of the Marathon bombings. As a lifelong New Yorker who lived through 9/11, I can relate.

The New York City Marathon was a joy to watch this past Sunday, and even more meaningful since it’s the first once since Sandy hit the region, and the first one after the Boston Marathon bombings. I love to watch the marathon for the stories, and for the races within the race, such as the Five Borough Race and the NYPD vs. FDNY. The only year that I didn’t watch the race was in 2007. On that day, the recruiter came by to pick up my younger son Magezi, who went off to Navy boot camp. By the time I remembered that it was Marathon Sunday, the TV coverage was almost done. Congrats to all the winners, and to all the runners.

My Giants won two games before they went into the by week. They’re now 2-6 on the season. Gary, my longtime sports bud at work, has faith that Big Blue will have enough in the tank to snag a wildcard spot. That’s how they got in the last time they won the Super Bowl. We’ll see.

The current issues surrounding the NCAA should not surprise anyone. Renowned historian and journalist Taylor Branch wrote an excellent Kindle single entitled The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005OR497E/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_jTtEsb1F276EW). The book should be required reading for anyone who’s a fan or a student of the game, or anyone who is concerned with what is happening to young college student athletes.

And the issue of head injuries in sports will not go away. I’m a fan of Tottenham Hotspurs in the English Premier League, but they made headlines for what they did (or didn’t do) for player Hugo Lloris. He was left in the game after he was knocked unconscious from a knee kick to his head in their game against Everton (http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/04/sport/football/football-lloris-rogers/index.html?hpt=ifo_t1). The team doctor is being criticized for his actions, and rightly so. Lloris should’ve been taken off the field and sent to the ER. Immediately. And not allowed to return until he was medically cleared. Case closed. I predict that, before it’s all said and done, traumatic sports injuries, all told, will rise to the level of being a major problem in the U.S., at great cost not only to the players, but to the family members left to care for them. The only thing that will top traumatic sports injuries in terms of impact will be the injuries suffered by our military. Sadly, both types of injuries are not being adequately addressed. Soccer better take a page from what’s going on today in the U.S.